The World is Listening

As we look across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to countries around the globe one glaring fact permeates the headlines world wide – anger. From Egypt to China; Syria to England; United States to Greece, there’s an undeniable truth that there are a lot of terribly upset people out there that continue to endure hardships in the wake of the Great Recession. The result is a global, uniform outcry that has started as protests and ended as riots of unprecedented proportions.

Certainly rioting is nothing new to this world: The Spartans faced a revolt by the slave men of Sparta, the helot, around 371 BC. Our country began brewing our own revolution with the advent of the French and Indian War of 1754. This culminated in a total rebellion to England after the Boston Massacre of 1770. The Jews have been at war both against themselves and their aggressors from the biblical to the current eras. It was written once that the Israeli nation is unarguably the best armed force in the world simply because of the violence that constantly besieges them.

The Greek government was forced to instate severe austerity measures in order to maintain a steady bond flow that would keep the country from going bankrupt. The International Monetary Fund, Germany, France; all wanted to make sure Greece had their house of finances in order before bailing them out. Greece’s government has yet to institute a concrete fiscal policy which makes the IMF, France and Germany, essential to Greece’s survival, hesitant to continue lending them money.

Greece by its nature has always been a hotbed of underlying tensions simmering beneath the surface. The chances of them going bankrupt and the oversized unemployment rate became the catalyst for rioting beginning Dec. 6, 2008 when police shot to death a fifteen year old student. As Wikipedia notes, “While the unrest was triggered by the shooting incident, commentators described the reactions as expressing deeper causes as well, especially a widespread feeling of frustration in the younger generation about specific economic problems of the country…, a rising unemployment rate among the young generation and a perception of general inefficiency and corruption in Greek state institutions”.

The Arab belt started their revolt with the Tunisian Revolution when, as Mona Eltahawy of the Washington Post writes in Jan. 2011, “Their rage at political and economic disenfranchisement spilled over last month with the desperate act of an unemployed man. Mohammed Bouazizi, 26, distraught when police confiscated his unlicensed produce stand, set himself on fire on Dec. 17 and died on Jan. 3. Soon, several other unemployed youth tried to commit suicide, and at least one of them did. Is there more a poignant portrayal of what ails the Arab world than images of its young people killing themselves as their leaders gets older and richer”?

She goes on, “All around him is a depressingly familiar pattern. Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi (68 years old) has been in power since 1969; Yemen’s Ali Abdulla Saleh (64) has ruled since 1978 and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (82) since 1981. Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika (73) is a relative newcomer, having been in power only since 1999. Not so much fathers as grandfathers of their nations, these autocrats cling to office – and are increasingly out of touch with their young populaces”.

The United States embarked on its round of protests from a group that started off in New York City. They call themselves the “99%ers” and have named their resistance Occupy Wall Street. Economic inequality between the rich and poor, high unemployment, the federal government bailing out banks, insurance companies, and auto manufacturers has become their rallying cry.

As with the protests of Tunisia and Greece, Occupy Wall Street’s protest took an ugly turn when Occupy Oakland’s encampment was raided Oct. 25. Writes Wikipedia, “Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen suffered a skull fracture caused by a projectile that witnesses believed was a tear gas or smoke canister fired by the police. He was rushed to the hospital by other protesters, who were shot at with unknown police projectiles while attempting to aid him. At least two other protesters were injured. The American Civil Liberties Union and National Lawyers Guild are calling for an investigation into the use of excessive force by Oakland police”.

If this instance of possible police brutality were a one-time incident it could be viewed as a tragedy. Unfortunately this wasn’t a one-time incident: Scott Campbell was shot by police with a non-lethal projectile while filming the riot line. Former Army Ranger Kayvan Sabeghi, also an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, was beaten by police as he tried to make his way home. UCLA protesters were pepper-sprayed by police for refusing to vacate the area they were protesting in.

While Occupy Wall Street’s critiques denounce the theme of the protests as non-uniform and lacking a cause, I think the response from the local and federal governments around the world only adds credibility to Occupy’s arguments and grievances. I also think the critics are missing one essential fact about the protesters and rioters: What started off on one news channel in New York City has morphed into solidarity movements from New York to California, China to England and everywhere in between. Occupy Wall Street became a household name nearly over night, something that no other protest anywhere or at any time has the distinction of accomplishing.

Personally I wouldn’t be so quick to write off the Occupy movement. Protests of any nature tend to produce some sort of result albeit for better or worse. Some protests are born out of wars while others lead to wars. Such is the case with our Civil War and the two World Wars respectively. But all have an undeniable outcome – change.

Change is the singular motivating power behind everything on Earth. Nothing can escape its will. It goes where it wants, it does what it wants; all things must obey its command.

This is unarguably the greatest change the world has ever witnessed, but a question remains: Will this global outcry last simply living off its merits? I can’t say. But when upset people become angry, well, we’ve seen what happens.
It’s not just a city, county, region or country that is listening anymore; the world is listening.